This invention relates to an improved surgical retractor. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved surgical retractor especially useful during the closure of a surgical incision.
Presently, the retraction of the sides and angles of a surgical incision during the closure procedure is performed by the operator himself, by the first assistant or by the second assistant, all using a conventional retractor or their fingers or by means of a self-retaining retractor. Such present practices are inefficient, inaccurate and even too traumatic and hazardous. Moreover, when there is a second assistant who is assigned the task of retracting the incision during the closure procedure in a lengthy operation in order to try to hasten the completion of the operation, his hands are the fifth and sixth involved in the operation and are frequently too close to the incision, impairing free access to the incision and the motions of the surgeon as well as those of the patient's respiration. On the other hand, self-retaining retractors are too rigid. They evenly stretch opposite sides of the incision, causing unnecessary trauma and not adapting to continuously changing needs during the closure of the incision. For example, neither the anatomy along the incision nor the motions of the surgeon are uniform. Since static retraction is quite unsuitable for the closure of an incision, the positioning and stressing exerted by a self-retaining retractor must be changed with inconvenient frequency. Even then, at any given moment the self-retaining retractor is to some extent retracting where retraction is not needed and, thus, causing unnecessary trauma while to some extent not retracting exactly where retraction is needed.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved surgical retractor, designed to be especially useful during the closure of a surgical incision, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior retractors and practices.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following description of the invention.